In Defense of Post-its

Chances are that, if you happen to’re a designer or UX practitioner, sooner or later in your profession you’ve used sticky notes, and never solely as helpful devices for jotting down fast concepts or making lists. Sticky notes are a vital software in lots of UX-related group processes — ideation , affinity diagramming , and, extra usually, in design thinking .

Some argue that they’re out of date, overhyped , or useless . Wrong. While it’s straightforward to overuse your Post-it pads or use them on the improper time or place, Post-its have many deserves that make them exhausting to switch. (Post-it is a trademark of 3M. Our evaluation right here applies to different manufacturers of stickies as nicely, however we’ll check with Post-it as a result of it’s essentially the most extensively used product on this class.)

In the digital world we stay in, concepts are simply misplaced or forgotten. Post-its are bodily seen on partitions and stay on as tangible byproducts for a lot of UX processes. Seeing all of the totally different concepts in several handwritings and colours listed on the identical wall creates a way of range and equality, and reinforces the sense of belonging to the crew. The Post-its aren’t the work of anyone particular person — they’re the seen proof of a bunch effort . And one whose collective nature is simple to understand. (Unlike a digital file created by one one that aggregates concepts of particular person contributors or a spreadsheet to which many collaborate: a bland scroll of Calibri appears too uniform to mirror the creation course of.)